Jaylen Brown Defends Moussa Diabaté After Hornets' Clash with Pistons

Charlotte Hornets center Moussa Diabaté was ejected last night against the Detroit Pistons, his role in the fracas with Jalen Duren leading to an early shower. Duren, Isaiah Stewart, and Miles Bridges joined them, and Charles Lee (on a separate foul call) joined them.

To most, it looked as if Duren took exception to Diabaté's shooting foul, got in his face, and then pushed Diabaté away by the face. Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff insisted that his players didn't initiate, but most angles don't seem to back him up.

Jaylen Brown isn't buying that, anyway. The Boston Celtics star saw the video of the fight and immediately took up for Diabaté, claiming that his retaliation was more than justified after what Duren did.

Jaylen Brown reaction to Pistons and Hornets getting into it:

“If a dude takes his hand and mush your face like that..I ain’t gon lie somebody gotta ***”

pic.twitter.com/oONlgVWHQ6
— Riley ❄️ (@rileysbetter) February 10, 2026

"Headbutt? Oh, then he mushed him? That's disrespectful," Brown said on a live stream. "Let's pause it right here. If a dude takes his hand and mushes you in your face like that, I ain't going to lie, somebody gotta d**."

Brown's harsh words aside, his sentiment rings true. Basketball is an intense sport in which players are constantly hitting one another, sometimes hard. This is especially true of big men, and Diabaté is one of the most physically active bigs in the league.

Facing a size disadvantage with All-Star Duren, it's easy to imagine how those two got so heated in the first place. It's not remotely surprising that this tense of a game resulted in an angry, face-to-face altercation.

But when Duren (who also appeared to initiate the headbutt, despite what Bickerstaff would have you believe) pushed Diabaté's face, all bets were off. The Frenchman didn't take kindly to that, which is understandable if you ask Brown.

From there, things devolved. Diabaté was nearly impossible to hold back from Duren, and then Miles Bridges and Isaiah Stewart got involved, which is the least shocking part of all this. Stewart is known for fighting, and Bridges is the veteran who has also, we have to admit, had some off-court issues in the past.

It all resulted in one of the most stunning moments of the NBA season, but according to Jaylen Brown, it's not that stunning at all.

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